


right now, you and me, it’s a bit awkward (but come closer to me)

by bambinotame



Category: DBSK | Tohoshinki | TVfXQ | TVXQ
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2019-06-13 05:53:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15357696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bambinotame/pseuds/bambinotame
Summary: The problem with soulmate marks is that first words aren’t always romantic.It’s not always like in the movies where one can look back at the moment they met their soulmate and just say something cheesy like “you had me at hello”.Jung Yunho, for one, most definitely cannot say “you had me at hello”.





	right now, you and me, it’s a bit awkward (but come closer to me)

**Author's Note:**

> Just a small headcanon I've wanted to write for a while  
> A huge thank you to sam for letting me bounce ideas off her all those months ago, you're the best momther I love you <3

The problem with soulmate marks is that first words aren’t always romantic.

It’s not always like in the movies where one can look back at the moment they met their soulmate and just say something cheesy like “you had me at hello”.

Jung Yunho, for one, most definitely cannot say “you had me at hello”.

He’d been rather excited for his mark to appear, unable to sleep a wink the night before his birthday, instead staring unblinkingly at his clock, watching the seconds tick by until it was finally February 6th, and he was finally 18.

Yunho was definitely a romantic at heart, and constantly wondered what lovely words his soulmate would utter to him upon their fated meeting.

He’d imagined their first meeting to be like something out of the dramas Jihye always watched with their mother. He’d crash into his soulmate somewhere they both frequented, maybe at school or the gym. They’d help him up with a bright smile and say something witty and funny to diffuse the embarrassment and Yunho would reply with something as equally cheeky, and they’d both have a good laugh over it, completely unaware to everything else around them.

It was with that excitement that he’d almost brained himself against his desk chair in his attempt to get to the bathroom mirror, and had effectively woken the whole household up with all the ruckus.

(Jihye still liked to tease him about it, though she’d reacted rather similarly when her mark appeared.)

Despite being woken up so abruptly that late at night, they were all rather excited as well, and had crowded around the bathroom door to see what words had shown up on Yunho’s person.

It was a tight, neat script, curving gently against the middle of his left thigh. Was that what his soulmate’s writing looked like? It looked pretty.

Then Yunho read the words. 

Then he read it again.

And again.

“Oppa?”

Jihye squeezed her way into the bathroom, took one look at the mark and burst out laughing so loudly she woke the neighbors’ dog.

“You had me at ‘We’re all slaves to capitalism. If you want to pay the bills, take it off.’” didn’t really have the same ring to it.

Not even a little bit. 

 

✦✦✦

 

Yunho lets out a ragged sigh as he finally makes his way into the lecture hall his class was going to be held in.

He’d woken up late after a night of finalizing a lesson plan for one of his education classes and had rushed out immediately after getting dressed. He’d barely made it inside before class officially started, and could see that just about every seat was filled.

He stands still for a moment, scanning the hall for any seat that he could take without causing a huge disturbance.

The closest available seat is next to a male that has his bag strewn across the seat and was very openly reading some sort of manga on his laptop. Yunho ventures his way down anyway, hoping that he’d move the bag without a fuss; and he does, glancing up from his phone for a second and making room right away. 

Yunho offers a small smile in thanks and takes a seat, quickly getting his things out to prepare to take notes.

The man next to him turns towards the doors to the lecture hall, muttering unintelligible something under his breath. As he turns back he makes eye contact with Yunho, who’s immediately taken by how large and glittery his seatmate’s eyes seem to be.

_ ‘Like a deer’s,’ _ he cooes internally. 

He shoots the man another smile, which is returned, albeit very soft and after a little hesitation.

Yunho watches him for a short while, how he centers his phone exactly in the center of the small desk attached to his seat, how he swipes at the invisible dust on his laptop screen with slender fingers. All the while he kept his gaze fixed rigidly on what he was doing, never once letting it trail towards Yunho.

He was obviously rather shy, Yunho surmised. It was adorable.

He opened his mouth, hoping to introduce himself to the man with the pretty eyes and shy smile, but was cut off before he could even start; the professor had come stumbling in noisily, followed by a man dressed in a suit.

Yunho shut his mouth and leaned back in his seat, deciding to try again later.

“I have a special guest here today, he’s in charge of scheduling photoshoots and promotional activities for idols. He’ll be leading the discussion today,” the professor gestured towards the man before taking a seat near the front.

There was an awkward silence as all the students stared at the man, waiting for him to speak.

“Let’s start off with why idols do things like commercials or photoshoots to begin with,” the manager offers, glancing at the professor for approval.

The man nods and eagerly gestures for the students to begin.

“It’s for money, obviously. They know their fans will drop the extra cash if they have something to do with it,” someone in the back immediately chimes.

The manager nods slightly, sucking in his teeth.

“I was hoping for something...a little more in depth.”

The man next to Yunho raises his hand while quickly typing something down with the other.

Yunho watches curiously, seemingly drawn in by every little thing the man did.

“When an idol does or says something that goes viral, companies want to work with them for that and use it in the promotions to get more attention. It’s the same with photoshoots and commercials. They know what kind of photoshoots will bring in the most fans and they take it to their advantage.” 

Yunho finds himself nodding in agreement; what the man said was true, even f he didn’t exactly agree with it.

Someone in the back clears their throat.

“It’s a cop out, is what it is. You couldn’t make sales with your music or acting so now you have to resort to banal promotions to reel in teenage girls and young women.”

“Well nowadays it has to be a mix of both. If you stick to only promoting your music, people will forget you pretty quickly. You need to be doing multiple things to be successful now,” the manager says in response.

“Then why is it that some ballad artists don’t take promotional contracts and still constantly top charts? Some of them don’t even go on music programs to promote their music and they’re crazy successful.”

“There’s a difference between marketing yourself as a ballad artist and marketing yourself as an idol.” Yunho can practically hear the man next to him rolling his eyes. 

Yunho lets out a sigh and doodles a strawberry on the corner of his notebook. He’d forgotten what he had wanted to say in the commotion the two were causing.

“Well...let’s not get too carried away, alright?”

He glanced up from his tiny strawberry to see the professor wringing his hands together, probably wanting to step in and save the manager from his bickering students but not knowing how to go about it.

“Well, do idols or actors have much choice if they want to stay in the limelight and keep the fanbase these ads are geared towards?” the professor asks (though it looks like he really just wants the answer from the manager).

“I mean, personally, I don’t think I’d be confident enough to be wearing revealing stuff for promotional stuff if I was an idol,” Yunho offers, thinking of the body wash commercial he saw the other day.

“Which is totally fine, but it’s all about what garners the most attention, and then the most sales. Shirtless shoots are all the fans want nowadays,” someone towards the back pipes in.

Yunho clicks his tongue, not liking that.

“But-”

The man with the pretty eyes cuts him off with an audible sigh, dramatically swinging his head around to face Yunho.

“We’re all slaves to capitalism. If you want to pay the bills, you need to take it off,” he drawls.

Yunho blinks at that, confused by both towards the sudden bitterness that took over his tone, and the familiarity of the words. 

_ ‘Oh.’ _

“...What?” the man asks, taking in Yunho’s frozen expression.

Yunho takes a shaky breath.

“Wow...you must really hate capitalism,” he mutters weakly.

The man stares at him, jaw slack.

“...What?”

This was nowhere near what he expected meeting his soulmate to be like.

 

✦✦✦

 

They spent the rest of the class in silence, not knowing what to say after that awkward of conversation.

Yunho is conscious of the fact that the exchange in the eyes of a viewer would make no sense, and that his classmates and the professor probably thought he was nuts for responding in such a way.

He finds himself simultaneously dreading and anticipating the end of class.

He glances over at the man and sees that he’s just as uncomfortable, sitting completely rigid in his seat, eyes staring unblinkingly and his screensaver. 

_ ‘Jihye is going to have a field day with this,’ _ Yunho laments.

The remaining 25 minutes seemed to take an eternity to end, but if one had asked Yunho what happened in that time, he wouldn’t be able to recall anything other than being hyper aware of the man next to him.

When the professor finally dismissed the class, his seatmate put everything away as soon as possible and shot out of his seat like a bat out of hell. Yunho deflated at that, and started to pack his own things away at a much slower pace.

_ ‘He probably doesn’t want to deal with this today. Or ever.’ _

He sits there for a bit, pouting (though he’d never admit it). He’s about to start drifting off into his thoughts when he’s interrupted by a sharp cough. Yunho jerks his head up to the see the man staring down at him, face impassive, but his large eyes betrayed his nervousness.

Yunho blinks at him in confusion, and he sighs.

“Let’s go talk at the cafe,” he mutters, face pinkening slightly. Yunho leaps up and follows him, heart beating fast.

 

✦✦✦

 

Yunho orders a cake, lemonade, and a latte, while the man orders a glass of water and a cappuccino.  

Yunho digs into the cake immediately, and lets out a small moan at how good it is. The man huffs behind his mug, his eyes sparkling with mirth.

“Shim Changmin,” he offers shortly. Yunho marvels at how such a pretty name paired so nicely with an equally pretty face.

“Jung Yunho!” he holds out a hand in offer of greeting, which the man, Changmin, takes hesitantly.

An awkward silence falls over them again, Changmin taking slow deliberate sips of his coffee, and Yunho poking at his cake.

Yunho lets out a sigh, catching Changmin’s attention again.

“Sorry,” he mumbles. Changmin tilts his head, visibly confused.

“Just- you’re probably upset that my first words were so dumb, right? You’ve been walking around with that on you all this time,” Yunho sounds pathetic even to himself, and can no longer deny that he’s pouting.

Changmin barks out a laugh, tossing his head back. Yunho swoons.

_ ‘His laugh is so lovely.’ _

Changmin peters off into small snickers, covering his face with his hands while his shoulders continue to shake. Yunho is too enamored by the visual and sound to be remotely embarrassed.

“You’ve been walking around with my first words on you, haven’t you? It would be pretty hypocritical of me to be upset over that,” he says, eyes warm as he appraises Yunho.

Yunho nods slowly, considering whether or not it would be too forward if he told Changmin that upon meeting him he would’ve been okay with any kind of soulmate mark.

“I… I’m not the most social person,” Changmin tentatively starts. Yunho straightens up, sensing the obvious change in mood.

“I wasn’t exactly, I guess actively, looking for or forward to my soulmate either. That’s why I reacted the way I did. I didn’t think it would happen. I-” Changmin’s voice suddenly breaks and he looks so young, so scared and vulnerable, that Yunho has to physically grip onto his chair to keep himself from pulling the man into a hug.

Changmin takes a deep breath, eyes fluttering rapidly. He looks like he’s trying to keep himself from tearing up.

“I’d understand..if you didn’t want to keep contact after this,” he finishes quietly, eyes trained on his mug.

“No!” Yunho blurts out before he can stop himself. Now everyone in the cafe is staring at them, as is Changmin, his eyes even larger than before. Yunho flushes and continues at a quieter tone.

“Of course I want to keep contact with you! You’re my soulmate, and even if you weren’t I’d still want to! You’re so  _ nice _ and  _ pretty _ ,” Yunho starts talking a mile a minute, and Changmin just stares, dumbfounded.

“We haven’t really talked enough for you to figure out whether I’m nice or not,” Changmin points out softly.

“I  _ want _ to get to know you,” Yunho replies earnestly.

The smile Changmin gives in response is so shy and cute, and so endearing that Yunho can actually feel his face turning red.

“I’d like to get to know you too,” Changmin’s voice is still soft and timid, but the smile is growing brighter and Yunho’s heart is soaring.

“You’re so cute,” he finally cooes. Changmin’s head snaps up and he turns a bright pink.

“Stop,” he mutters.

“You are! Changdol-ah, you’re the cutest boy I’ve ever met,” Yunho continues, deftly avoiding the Changmin’s swatting hand.

Changmin pulls Yunho’s plate of cake towards himself and starts eating it in response, and send him a heatless glare.

Yunho settles for watching him happily, to which Changmin gives him a raised brow.

“You’re kind of weird. I might change my mind about wanting to get to know you,” he says around a mouthful of cake. His expression freezes immediately, waiting for Yunho’s reaction to the bite.

Yunho just laughs and reaches for the fork (they were already sharing utensils like a couple, his inner romantic was enjoying it way too much) to help himself to more cake.

“You can’t get rid of me that easily, Changmin-ah. I’ll just keep bothering you,” he hums.

Changmin groans dramatically, but can’t hide the wide grin that’s taken over his face.

As Yunho watches him, he can’t help but be thankful their first meeting hadn’t gone anywhere near what he had expected it to.

**Author's Note:**

> Come chat with me I want friends owo  
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/ara_shi_nki) & [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/ara_shi_nki)


End file.
